Instruments make up the foundation of what music is, at a fundamental level. After all, music ceases to exist without an instrument to play it, and additional effects can only go so far. However, to push the boundaries of how to turn music into something truly unique, people are looking for ways to introduce new ideas into the world of music. One of those ways is through a natural evolution of ambient noises: “Junk Audio”.
Junk Audio is essentially the concept of creating music out of things that are not instruments or your voice. While this is as simple sometimes as just hitting a table gently to the tune of a song, there is a much deeper world at scope here. A prime example of this is the soundtrack for Rain World, an indie game from 2017. The composer for Rain World’s soundtrack, James Therrien, used thousands of junk audio samples for the music that he made, ranging from hitting steel pipes against each other to crushing tin cans to banging trash can lids to messing with old car parts.
A prime example of this is the song Kayava, in which the opening drum loop is a combination of junk sounds, with synthesized and modified clap sounds, shakers, and beating against a trash can lid. This can be heard in the track Mud Pits as well, with the almost alien feeling in the initial drums being because the drums are, well, not drums. This is used all over the soundtrack, and really gives it a personality of its own.
This isn’t something exclusive to Rain World, either; synthetic sounds made from random noises or junk audio can be used all the time for various things. Slide a piece of paper across a desk, record it, give it reverb and a few other effects, and you have a perfect riser. Remember in middle school when everyone would tap out beats on a desk using a pencil? Those taps can be modified, and suddenly you have a drum beat that sounds just like a real one. The possibilities for what someone can do musically are endless, even if all you have is a free audio workstation, a pencil, and some loose odds and ends. While these sounds may at first feel clunky, unnatural, out of tune or outside the norm, they can create wonderful things if given a chance to shine at the forefront of a song.
